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England has 24,302 open schools: 17,267 primary, 4,434 secondary, 2,271 special and 330 pupil referral units.
State schools in England follow the National Curriculum from Reception to Year 11, with SATs at the end of Key Stage 2, GCSEs at 16, and A-levels, T-levels or vocational qualifications at 18. Provision is a mix of community schools run by local authorities and academies and free schools funded directly by central government, alongside grammar schools that still select by the eleven-plus in some areas and the UK's largest independent sector. Ofsted inspects state schools — from late 2025 the single overall grade was replaced by a report-card model that grades separate areas of a school's work.
Curriculum
National Curriculum
Main qualifications
GCSE and A-level
Inspectorate
Ofsted
local authorities
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AlsoHeaded to England from another UK nation? The moving-between-UK-nations guide covers curriculum matching and qualification equivalence.